To add to what F4LLOUT says, an item that has its copyright expire does not become abandonware. It enters the public domain. H.P. Lovecraft's and Shakespeare's works aren't legally abandonware, they are in the public domain.

Abandonware is a descriptive term, but not legal one.

and that's a problem, it should be a legal term with a perfectly clear definition.

Not entirely true. They might be public domain in the USA, but in many other countries, much of the work they (and others) did is still covered by copyright - either due to "modern" translations (say the last 20-30 years), renewed copyrights (ie by the regional publisher) or localised copyright law. Hence both archive.org and Project Gitenberg have warnings regarding the public domain status of what they offer.

I know this from personal experience as well - due to some work (comission) I did last year based on a supposedly "public domain" Lovecraft tale, and the ensuing legal battle. Can't say much more than that, but if you think something is public domain and wish to make use of it - best to check first... REALLY check!

I remember the time when GOG was announced and a lot of people thought they were just using "abandonware" games to get money. How can someone think about asking money for old games that were available for years in abandonware sites?

Good times...

And nobody can predict what the consequences would be. Rightsholders would go through great lengths to avoid abandonware status of the IPs they own, often for no practical purposes, much like many companies are already obtaining the rights to works without specific plans to do anything with them - that's what got many creative works into legal hell in the first place. The best thing about abandonware is that it's not legally regulated, it fits the entire scene and ideology and the "if nobody says anything it's okay" attitude has great practical purposes. The moment abandonware status became something fought over in court rooms the whole thing would go to shit.
Well, in those cases it's the translation that's protected, that's a somewhat different thing. Of course derivatives of old works do and must have their own copyrights.

last i checked, they're still mad about it. just not on GOG forums. but they seem more obsessed with old console games and roms because perceived rarity or whatever.

Sorta like the the issue with 'No one lives forever' where three or four companies might have had copyright, and their responses were quite interesting. "We don't know if we own rights to it, but if we do you better not do anything with it! Oh and we aren't going to confirm it because it's too big a pain because we went all digital 10 years ago..."..

I'm sure there's plenty of creativity to be had for continuing storylines, but corporations are more than happy to let it go stale and die rather than someone else take them and do something with them... As is obviously the case.

Kind of harsh to boycott a bunch of games from them just because they wrote some angry words. People get angry, you know. It's only human. That doesn't mean, they throw "tamper tantrums" on a daily basis. What if they make some really good games in the future?

Your information is outdated. Latest info (from end of 2014) is that WB does have the full rights, and they were in talks with ND about it, but sometime during November or December of 2014 they dropped negotiations with ND. I still believe that means GOG made a better offer than ND, and thus why ND has been shunning GOG lately, but that's just wishful speculation on my part, with no way to prove it.
Tell me if you want me to dig up the thread where we discussed it 9 months ago.

That simplifies things.. I heard last i think it was WB, Activition and.. ummm... i don't remember...

But if NOLF is getting sorted then great, maybe we'll see a re-release or a remake in the next 2 years...

No need.

Shuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun

I would be so down for a remake of NOLF.

Tell me about it. Just imagine her tight leather suit with some normal maps on it. Oh, those sexy sexy normal maps... rroaarrr. Would be a crime not to make it third person.